Educate yourself about World Spay Day
Credit: Michelle Riley/The HSUS
It’s the less cute side of the pet industry. World Spay Day 2013, Tuesday, Feb. 26, galvanizes organizers, the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International, with various animal welfare organizations in 45 countries to promote the sterilization of companion animals, feral cats and street dogs.
According to the HSUS, about four million cats and dogs are euthanized in U.S. shelters each year, most of them simply because they have no home. That’s about one every eight seconds, every day.
“The main reason for neutering is to stop suffering,” says Vicki Stevens, the HSUS’s World Spay Day coordinator. “Euthanasia is horrible for everyone: for the people who work at the shelter and for the animal who dies prematurely in a shelter. Much of it is so avoidable by neutering. Shelters do their best, but there are not enough resources for all the kittens and pups who need homes.”
Stevens says anyone with a much-loved non-neutered pet with a forever home who thinks spaying doesn’t apply to them should look at the bigger picture. For example, pets who aren’t neutered but are allowed outside can impregnate other animals, the offspring of which could end up at a shelter or killed.
“People who think that their animals have a good home and aren’t the problem should think about it [that] way. It’s personal.”
But on the cuter side…
The World Spay Day 2013 online Pet Pageant invites animal lovers to upload pet photos. The pageant ends March 15. Proceeds benefit U.S. non-profit organizations participating in World Spay Day. For more info, visit www.worldspayday.org.
